Tunceli
Tunceli | |
|---|---|
Tunceli in Munzur valley | |
Tunceli Location in Turkey | |
| Coordinates: 39°06′23″N 39°32′50″E / 39.10639°N 39.54722°E | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Province | Tunceli |
| District | Tunceli |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Cevdet Konak (DEM Party) (elect-mayor) (deposed) Ertuğrul Aslan (acting) (trustee) |
| Elevation | 914 m (2,999 ft) |
| Population (2021) | 35,161 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (TRT) |
| Website | www |
Tunceli (Armenian: Մամիկի, romanized: Mamiki; Kurdish: Kalan; Zazaki: Mamekiye)[1][2] is a municipality (belde) in Tunceli District and capital of Tunceli Province, Turkey. The city has a Kurdish majority.[3][4][5] The population is predominantly Kurdish Alevi, a distinct ethno-religious community whose identity has been shaped by the region's history of autonomy and resistance to central state authority.[6][7] It had a population of 35,161 in 2021.[8]
Name
During Ottoman times, the settlement was called Kalan or Mameki.[9] Tunceli, which is a modern name, literally means "bronze fist" in Turkish (tunç meaning "bronze" and eli, in this context, meaning "fist"). It shares the name with the military operation under which the Dersim massacre was conducted.[10] The province of Dersim (or Dêrsim) was renamed Tunceli in 1935, as was the settlement of Kalan, which became the province's administrative center in 1938.[9] Dersim is popularly understood to be composed of the Kurdish/Zazaki words der ("door") and sim ("silver"), thus meaning "silver door." Whether the town should be called Dersim or Tunceli has been a cause of political quarrels. In May 2019, the local authorities decided to call it Dersim, while the governor said it was against the law to call it Dersim.[11]
History
During the time of the Ottoman Empire, Tunceli (then known as Kalan) was a part of the region named Dersim. In 1847, Dersim was declared a sanjak (a historical administrative unit smaller than the province). The capital of the sanjak was Hozat. During the Republican period, Tunceli Province was established in 1935. In 1946, the former town of Kalan was renamed as Tunceli and it was declared as the capital city of the province.[12]
Tunceli played a role in the Dersim rebellion by the Kurds. The Dersim massacre of 1937–38, carried out by Turkish military forces following the passage of the Tunceli Law (Law No. 2884) of 1935, resulted in the deaths of thousands of Kurdish Alevi inhabitants of the Dersim region and the forced displacement of tens of thousands more.[13] The events have been characterised by scholars as a pivotal episode in the Kurdish experience in Turkey, and the region's Kurdish Alevi population has maintained a strong collective memory of the massacre as a formative element of local identity.[14] In 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly apologised for the Dersim massacre, describing it as "one of the most tragic events of our recent history."[15]
Tunceli is famous for excellent rankings in National Education statistics.[16]
Demographics
Tunceli Province, of which the city is the administrative centre, is notable for being the province with the smallest population in Turkey and one of the most ethnically homogeneous, with a population that is overwhelmingly Kurdish Alevi.[17] Martin van Bruinessen, a leading academic authority on Kurdish society, has described the Dersim region as one of the principal centres of Kurdish Alevi identity in Turkey, noting its relative geographical and cultural isolation as a key factor in the preservation of distinct linguistic and religious traditions.[18] The population of Tunceli predominantly speaks Kurmanji and Zazaki (also known as Dimli), two languages widely spoken among Kurdish communities in eastern Turkey.[19]
Politics
In the Municipal Elections which took place on 31st of March 2019, Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu was elected Mayor.[20] He is the first mayor of Tunceli from the Communist Party of Turkey.
In 2018, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that if "those involved with terrorism" (referring to the HDP party[21]) were to win the elections, that his government would "appoint trustees without delay".[22]
In May 2019 the Municipal Council decided to use the city's historic name Dersim and also to offer municipal services in Zazaki and Kurmanji. 4 Members of the newly elected municipal council had their certificates revoked in May 2019 for having been dismissed from public office in the past.[23]
Economy
The main economic activity is animal breeding. Wheat is the only notable agricultural product. There are chromium, salt and marble deposits, but only salt is produced. There are a few factories based on agriculture.[24]
Climate
Tunceli has a continental climate (Köppen: Dsa, Trewartha: Dc) with very hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters.
| Climate data for Tunceli (1991–2020, extremes 1960–2025) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 14.2 (57.6) |
19.4 (66.9) |
26.0 (78.8) |
32.2 (90.0) |
36.6 (97.9) |
39.0 (102.2) |
43.5 (110.3) |
43.5 (110.3) |
40.4 (104.7) |
35.6 (96.1) |
27.0 (80.6) |
21.7 (71.1) |
43.5 (110.3) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 3.8 (38.8) |
5.8 (42.4) |
12.1 (53.8) |
18.5 (65.3) |
24.3 (75.7) |
30.7 (87.3) |
35.5 (95.9) |
36.0 (96.8) |
30.8 (87.4) |
23.2 (73.8) |
13.9 (57.0) |
6.0 (42.8) |
20.1 (68.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −1.0 (30.2) |
0.6 (33.1) |
6.4 (43.5) |
12.1 (53.8) |
17.0 (62.6) |
22.8 (73.0) |
27.3 (81.1) |
27.4 (81.3) |
21.9 (71.4) |
15.2 (59.4) |
7.0 (44.6) |
1.3 (34.3) |
13.2 (55.8) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −4.6 (23.7) |
−3.4 (25.9) |
1.5 (34.7) |
6.3 (43.3) |
10.2 (50.4) |
14.7 (58.5) |
19.1 (66.4) |
19.0 (66.2) |
13.5 (56.3) |
8.6 (47.5) |
1.9 (35.4) |
−2.1 (28.2) |
7.1 (44.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −30.3 (−22.5) |
−29.0 (−20.2) |
−24.7 (−12.5) |
−7.1 (19.2) |
−0.1 (31.8) |
1.0 (33.8) |
9.2 (48.6) |
7.7 (45.9) |
2.6 (36.7) |
−4.0 (24.8) |
−16.4 (2.5) |
−25.6 (−14.1) |
−30.3 (−22.5) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 121.0 (4.76) |
103.7 (4.08) |
110.1 (4.33) |
100.1 (3.94) |
73.8 (2.91) |
16.6 (0.65) |
5.0 (0.20) |
5.0 (0.20) |
23.5 (0.93) |
60.4 (2.38) |
86.5 (3.41) |
120.9 (4.76) |
826.6 (32.54) |
| Average precipitation days | 11.50 | 10.83 | 14.07 | 15.10 | 13.60 | 5.27 | 2.40 | 1.77 | 3.83 | 9.03 | 8.83 | 11.50 | 107.7 |
| Average snowy days | 7.7 | 3.7 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 17.5 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 74.7 | 71.3 | 63.2 | 59.7 | 58.6 | 46.9 | 38.6 | 36.3 | 42.4 | 58.7 | 69.4 | 75.9 | 57.9 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 102.6 | 116.4 | 162.2 | 193.6 | 257.3 | 323.9 | 356.8 | 332.3 | 275.5 | 208.3 | 152.0 | 96.0 | 2,576.7 |
| Mean daily sunshine hours | 3.3 | 4.2 | 5.3 | 6.5 | 8.3 | 10.8 | 11.5 | 10.7 | 9.2 | 6.7 | 5.1 | 3.1 | 7.1 |
| Source 1: Turkish State Meteorological Service[25] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: NOAA (humidity, sun 1991-2020),[26] Meteomanz(snowy days 2014-2023, extremes 2021-present)[27] | |||||||||||||
See also
Further reading
- "TUNCELİ". TDV Encyclopedia of Islam (44+2 vols.) (in Turkish). Istanbul: Presidency of Religious Affairs, Centre for Islamic Studies. 1988–2016.
References
- ^ Avcıkıran, Adem (2009). Kürtçe Anamnez Anamneza bi Kurmancî (in Turkish and Kurdish). p. 55.
- ^ Andrews, Peter; Benninghaus, Rüdiger (2002). Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey: Supplement and Index. p. 54. ISBN 9783895002298.
- ^ Sertel, Savaş (31 January 2016). "TÜRKİYE CUMHURİYETİ'NİN İLK GENEL NÜFUS SAYIMINA GÖRE DERSİM BÖLGESİNDE DEMOGRAFİK YAPI". Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. 24 (1). doi:10.18069/fusbed.82073. ISSN 1300-9702.
- ^ Eke, Deniz Cosan (2021). The Changing Leadership Roles of »Dedes« in the Alevi Movement: Ethnographic Studies on Alevi Associations in Turkey and Germany from the 1990s to the Present. transcript Verlag. p. 64.
- ^ Gültekin, Ahmet Kerim (2019). Kurdish Alevism: Creating New Ways of Practicing the Religion (PDF). University of Leipzig. p. 4.
- ^ van Bruinessen, Martin (1997). "Aslını İnkar Eden Haramzadedir: The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of the Kurdish Alevis". In Kehl-Bodrogi, Krisztina (ed.). Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East. Brill. pp. 1–23.
- ^ Akpinar, Alişan; Deniz, Dursun; Gezik, Erdal (2019). Kurdish Alevis and the Case of Dersim: Historical and Contemporary Insights. Lexington Books.
- ^ "Address-based population registration system (ADNKS) results dated 31 December 2021" (XLS) (in Turkish). TÜİK. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ a b "Tunceli". nisanyanmap.com (in Turkish). Retrieved 1 February 2023.
- ^ "The Massacre in Dersim Still Haunts Kurds in Turkey". jacobin.com. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
- ^ "A short history of Turkification: From Dersim to Tunceli". Ahval. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ Tunceli governor's page on history Archived 2013-09-28 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)
- ^ Deniz, Dursun (2020). "Re-assessing the genocide of Kurdish Alevis in Dersim, 1937–38". Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal. 14 (2): 72–92. doi:10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1693.
- ^ Goner, Ozlem (2017). Turkish National Identity and its Outsiders: Memories of State Violence in Dersim. Routledge.
- ^ Letsch, Constanze (24 November 2011). "Turkish PM says sorry for 1930s massacre of Kurds". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
- ^ "Eğitim sıralamasında Tunceli birinci".
- ^ Sözen, Ümmühan (2019). "Culture, Politics and Contested Identity among the "Kurdish" Alevis of Dersim". Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies. 6 (1): 14–27. doi:10.29333/ejecs/222.
- ^ van Bruinessen, Martin (1997). "Aslını İnkar Eden Haramzadedir: The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of the Kurdish Alevis". In Kehl-Bodrogi, Krisztina (ed.). Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East. Brill. pp. 1–23.
- ^ Andrews, Peter; Benninghaus, Rüdiger (2002). Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey: Supplement and Index. p. 54. ISBN 9783895002298.
- ^ "Tunceli Seçim Sonuçları: 31 Mart 2019 Tunceli Yerel Seçim Sonuçları". Sözcü (in Turkish). Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ "Turkey: HDP official accused of aiding PKK terrorist". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
- ^ SCF (8 October 2018). "Turkey's Erdoğan vows re-seizure of municipalities should pro-Kurdish HDP win local elections". Stockholm Center for Freedom. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
- ^ Barwari, Rawa (2019). "Kurdish city returns to original name 'Dersim,' attracts Turkish ire". Kurdistan24. Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "TUNCELİ - Ekonomik Faaliyetler". www.cografya.gen.tr.
- ^ "Resmi İstatistikler: İllerimize Ait Mevism Normalleri (1991–2020)" (in Turkish). Turkish State Meteorological Service. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
- ^ "World Meteorological Organization Climate Normals for 1991-2020 — Tunceli". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
- ^ "Tunceli - Weather data by months". Meteomanz. Retrieved 12 July 2024.